Just over three minutes were left in overtime when the two stars met at the top of the 3-point arc and locked eyes. The ball was in Jayson Tatum’s hands. The clock was ticking down. His Boston Celtics had a two-point lead and he smelled blood in the water. Standing between Tatum and his quest to keep the Celtics as the last unbeaten team in the league was Anthony Edwards. Except Edwards wasn’t standing. He was crouching, knees bent, arms flexed and jaw locked as he prepared to go toe-to-toe with one of the best one-on-one scorers in the league. That he had five fouls and was up against a cunning foul-drawer never even entered Edwards’ mind. He had a score to settle.
“He got the stop on me at the end of (regulation). And he was talkin’ smack at the jump ball in overtime,” Edwards said. “And I told him, ‘(Expletive), I’m comin’ again.’”
But the tide feels like it is rising in Minnesota at the start of this season, not because of Edwards’ ability to put the ball in the hole, spectacular as it was on Monday night against the rugged Celtics. The identity forming in this new version of the Timberwolves is on the defensive end of the floor. That is what has made these Wolves dangerous. This is where Edwards had to make his mark in that moment.
This is the matchup Tatum wanted. He had hit two free throws 30 seconds earlier to put the Celtics in front, and now it was closing time. He started the possession with Timberwolves defensive monster Jaden McDaniels on him, so he called Al Horford for a screen to get switched onto Edwards. The 22-year-old Wolves star knew exactly what was going on.
“He called me up for an ISO and tried to ISO me, and I’m like, ‘I play defense, I just got five fouls,’ know what I’m sayin’?” Edwards said. “So I had to show him I could play defense.”Tatum dribbled between his legs as he measured Edwards and then started to his left. Edwards slid his feet with him, not giving an inch of real estate, then poked the ball out of Tatum’s hands. Tatum fell to the court on his backside as he tried to retain possession, and Edwards swarmed him to cause a tie-up for a jump ball. The 6-foot-4 Edwards then beat the 6-8 Tatum on the tip, a defensive stand that opened the door for a Timberwolves deluge.
Edwards fed Mike Conley for a 3 to put the Wolves in front 106-105 and then unleashed a ferocious flurry of shots himself to push them to a 114-109 victory, dropping the Celtics to 5-1 this season. Edwards shook Al Horford for a 19-foot pull-up jumper and then capped the flurry with a whirling drive around Kristaps Porzingis that preceded a one-handed push shot in the lane that sealed the victory.
“It’s not a boxing match,” Gobert said. “It’s not a one knockout match. It’s a basketball game.”